


alone, with you

by Lemres



Category: FRAGILE さよなら月の廃墟 | Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon
Genre: Fluff, M/M, and later crow sees setos scars, minor angst ? idk, propper tagging ? dont know her, seto brings crow to the observatory to live there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-13 23:13:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19261090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lemres/pseuds/Lemres
Summary: After reviving Crow, Seto travels to the observatory with him to live peaceful lives together. He doesn't, however, think of telling him of his fights with ghosts, or the scars that had come from them.





	alone, with you

**Author's Note:**

> in 2019 were finishing our wips,, i had this for like a year before i finished it

Crow doesn’t miss the amount of sweat that gathers on Seto’s forehead before he hastily wipes it away, nor does he miss how he lightly slouches and pants under the harsh midsummer sun. Shadows from the thick trees and overgrowth along the gravel path offer them shade, but Crow’s sensors warn him of overheating if they continue.

“Are we there yet?” Crow complains, although it’s more of a complaint. He has plenty of time before the heat becomes dangerous for him, but the trek between monotonous greenery and the possibility of needing to rest in thicker shade _again_ bores him to no end.

Seto doesn’t reply at first, and Crow briefly considers that maybe one more thirty minute rest in the forest wouldn’t hurt before he’s snapped out of his worries. “Almost.” His human companion reassures, a change from the reply of ‘not yet’ he’s received countless times before. The excitement Crow feels from the subtle change is nearly embarrassing to him.

He looks to the sky, where the trees and sky meet further down the path in hopes of catching a glimpse of Seto’s first home before he does. When he catches glimpses of something white, rusted, and definitely not a cloud, he bounds excitedly to walk at Seto’s side and points. “You weren’t kidding! You lived there when you were little?”

“Yeah.” Seto gives one short nod, and Crow frowns.

“Y’know, we can still rest one last time. We’re close but it still won’t be good if you faint now.”

“No, it’s okay.” Seto tries to reassure him again, but Crow already thoroughly knows his constant attempts of trying and failing to be tougher than he really is.

“I could carry you?” He offers, blatantly ignoring his sensors telling him that's exactly _not_ what he should be doing, lest he wants to overheat and damage himself.

Seto starts to life at the offer, suddenly standing straight and picking up his pace. “N-no, it’s um, it’s fine. I can make it the rest of the way; we don’t need to.”

Crow raises an eyebrow at Seto’s back, but otherwise doesn’t comment on the sudden strange behavior. “Alright,” he relents. “But let me know if you change your mind.”

Seto doesn’t, and instead keeps his hurried pace the rest of the way to the old observatory.

* * *

 

The old wood creaks under Crow’s shoes as he walks in the decrepit building behind Seto. The musty smell that had gathered in the makeshift house after years of unuse fills Crow's sensors in only a moment, and he openly coughs before he can really take the place in. "Did you ever even clean this place?" He gripes once most of the dust fades away.

He thinks he hears Seto reply, but he's already taken by the observatory's interior. Wooden platforms hang along the wall overhead, thin but just wide enough for a person to comfortably walk across. To the left, Crow's eye catches an array of books on several bookshelves and he would have gone in if it wasn't for his curiosity for what was in the center.

"Hey Seto," Crow asks suddenly. "What is that?"

"What is what?"

"This." Crow clarifies by touching the incredibly tall cylindrical object in the center, his fingers brushing against cool solid metal underneath the thick layer of dust. He looks higher up the strange structure and sees a second, much longer cylinder stretch across just underneath where the dome curves.

“Grandpa called it a telescope,” Seto explains. “He said you can see stars closer with it, but it’s broken now.”

Crow huffs and deflates, discontent with the answer, before suddenly jolting back to life only a few seconds later. “Oh yeah! What are we gonna do now that we’re here? You wanted to live here right?”

“Well for one we’ll need to get all this dust cleared,” Seto says, and Crow almost comments on how obvious that is but Seto keeps talking. “First I’m going to wash off in the creek though.”

Oh, right. Seto was sweating so much not long ago that Crow worried he would sweat out all the water in him, but more importantly- “What am I supposed to do then?”

“Well, uh,” Seto stammers. “You could, um, come too? I-It won’t take long.”

Crow, not quite sure why his friend would suddenly become so shy, is quick to agree to leave and Seto leads him outside through the observatory’s library. Outside, the creek is only a few paces away from the door, although it’s rather deep for a river to Crow. It’s more like a small river, maybe, and the few larger fish that swim upstream feels like proof to him.

Crow grins at Seto standing at his side, a fantastic idea coming to mind. “Race you to the water!” He suddenly exclaims, and he’s already sprinting to the flowing water, ignoring the call for him to wait behind him.

He reaches the water long before Seto, leaping in and crashing into the water ungracefully and scaring away any unlucky fish that could have been around. He realises far too late that _maybe_ jumping into freezing cold water wasn’t the best idea, if his sensors were any indication of that.

“Crow! Are you okay?” Seto’s yelling behind him and Crow raises an eyebrow at him. It was just cold water, he didn’t need to be that worried for him. Sure, he hit the ground somewhat hard but that was it.

He manages to sit cross-legged in the water after maneuvering around awkwardly for a few moments. “I’m fine.” He states, plain as day, but then he catches Seto’s worried expression and hesitates. “What, are you gonna cry?” He challenges, although there’s no real bite to his words, not even like when he jokingly bullies Seto.

“No!” Seto protests. “It’s just that- you’re a robot so- I thought you might have-”

Through Seto’s botched explanation, Crow blinks once. Twice. Then it sinks in on what he’s trying to say. “It’s fine.” Crow says in the middle of Seto’s stuttering. He rises to his feet, the weight of the water making the task more daunting than he would have liked. “I’m pretty much waterproof, see? No malfunctions. ‘Sides if I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t have jumped in, loser.”

Seto looks like he’s going to protest again, but Crow beats him to talking before he does. “What, don’t believe me?” He teases. “Or did you need a closer look?” He pulls Seto in before he thinks of the consequences and hesitates when the closeness hits him. Was this why Seto was so jumpy when Crow asked to carry him in what feels like a long time ago? A small part of Crow thinks about discarding the plans he had before and pulling Seto closer, but before he entertains that thought he shoves Seto to the side and into the water.

“Hey!” Seto whines when he pulls himself out from below the water, and Crow laughs at the frustrated boy, hoping he couldn’t see the blush he was sure was there. A curse that comes with being made to be as human as possible.

“Hey yourself,” he jokes between laughs. “You needed to come in too, with all that sweat on y-woah!” He squawks when Seto unexpectedly grabs his leg and yanks, causing him to fall back into the water.

When he pulls back up, Seto is already laughing at him and it’s so jovial and contagious that Crow joins him and basks in the warm atmosphere they’ve created.

 

* * *

 

The sun is setting and turning into dusk when the two make their way back into the observatory, sopping wet clothes and all, when Seto stops just short of the ladder. "Oh," he says. "Wait here." Crow watches Seto climb the ladder and listens as we walks across the wooden platforms before returning to him.

"Here," he says placing a small pile of clothes in Crow's hands when he outstretches them. "I don't know if these will fit, but could you try changing into these in the library? I'll hang your clothes up to dry with mine."

Crow blinks at him, not sure why drying his clothes would be so important since he doesn’t get sick, but he doesn’t complain and does as he’s asked. When he exits the small room, old clothes in hand, Seto isn’t around. Curious, he drops the clothes in a wet pile and climbs the ladder to the wooden platforms above.

When he reaches the top, Seto is more than a few paces away, only shirtless and facing away from where Crow had come in at and seemingly oblivious to Crow’s presence. With a brilliant idea hatching in his mind, Crow creeps closer, as silent as the many cats he’s met since traveling with Seto. His hands rise up, ready to strike, when he stops just short of grabbing him.

Scars cover the entirely of Seto’s back, consisting of various lengths and sizes, and Crow can’t help but stare. That was. A lot. They looked like they would be painful too.

Suddenly, trying to scare Seto didn’t sound all that fun anymore.

He stands straight and retracts his hands. He doesn’t have a heart but he still feels it shatter at the idea of Seto getting these injuries and something inside him hopes he didn’t suffer much before they reunited.

He shouldn’t have seen, Crow thinks, but thinks better of leaving things as they are. He says Seto’s name, his voice only slightly over a broken-hearted murmur, but it’s still enough to spurr Seto to life.

“What are you doing up here?” Seto squeaks, scrambling for something Crow assumes to be a shirt.

“Didn’t want to wait,” Crow explains quickly, feeling hurried to ask about Seto. “More importantly, why do you have so many scars on your back?”

The boy in question straightens, tense as soon as the question left Crow’s mouth. “Oh, I’ve had to fight ghosts while I travel and a few surprised me is all.”

‘A few’ sounded far more like an understatement, and it looks more like Seto had more than enough close calls to last a lifetime. Something in him tells him to snake his arms around him and he doesn’t hesitate to do so, the warm skin foriegn against his synthetic hands.

“You shouldn’t have gotten hurt,” Crow whispers, nearly inaudible. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to keep you safe.”

Seto laughs, awkwardly and a bit shy. “It’s okay. We were both looking for our own things.”

Seto, with his voice shaky and cheeks red, had once said that kisses weren’t for friends, but rather lovers or the romantic couples that would appear in some of Crow’s books. While it was difficult to tell _how_ one would know when two people are a couple, all that Seto tried to tried to teach him was forgotten the moment his lips touch one of the many scars on his back.

“W-what are you-” Seto manages to choke out, but Crow talks over him.

“I really missed you,” Crow murmurs against skin, starting a trail of kisses along one particularly long scar that moves up his back. “Thanks for coming back for me.”

“Yeah,” Seto says, barely above a whisper. “I missed you too."


End file.
